ALA for biosecurity
The Training Centre is pleased to invite you to an upcoming online workshop delivered by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Australia’s national open‑access biodiversity data infrastructure.
This two-part series will showcase how ALA data can support biosecurity through early detection, monitoring, and modelling of pests, weeds and pathogens. However, effective use and contribution of ALA data requires an understanding of its data systems, tools, and limitations, particularly when working with large, heterogeneous datasets and citizen science records.
Session 1 (Webinar – 9 June, 3:00–4:00 pm AEST):
Introduction to ALA, its data, and tools relevant to biosecurity (see attached calendar invite and Teams link below)
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is Australia’s national, open‑access biodiversity data infrastructure, bringing together species occurrence and environmental data from government agencies, research institutions, biological collections and citizen science programs. This rich and growing resource is playing an increasingly critical role in biosecurity, enabling early detection, monitoring and spatial modelling of pests, weeds and pathogens through tools such as species occurrence alerts and programmatic access via R and Python.
In this webinar, participants will learn how ALA data and tools can be effectively used for biosecurity applications, while also gaining a clear understanding of the underlying data systems, common challenges and limitations. The session will be particularly valuable for those working with large, heterogeneous datasets and citizen science records who want to make informed, reliable use of ALA data.
In the first session, participants will be introduced to the Atlas of Living Australia, learn about our data, how it’s relevant to biosecurity, and explore tools that are available to help the biosecurity sector. This session is open to all, please share.
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/43255005412777?p=TWWjBx4I990CkOcjUY
Meeting ID: 432 550 054 127 77
Passcode: U64TU9BM
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Session 2 (Online Workshop – 11 August, time TBC):
Hands‑on training using thegalahR package to access, explore and analyse biodiversity data
In the second session, workshop participants will be introduced to the galah package, an R package that allows people to filter and download species occurrence records, taxonomic information and associated media in R. The session will demonstrate how to use galah to query biodiversity data for download, investigate associated metadata to assess record quality and usage, and how to explore these data using maps and plots. Using code to work with ALA data is particularly useful for those interested in improving the reproducibility of their workflows.
Please save the date for the August workshop — further details and calendar invitations will follow.
We encourage you to share this opportunity within your teams and organisation.
Past Events
11 May 2026 Centre Forum (Melbourne)
Our invite-only Centre Forum was in Melbourne. We showcased our projects and engaging with partners. The Centre Forum was followed by a special networking event for students, and a broader networking event for partners. Read our wrap up here.
12 – 13 May 2026 PBRI Symposium (Melbourne)
We are proud to sponsor the PBRI Symposium, which will be held at the Melbourne State Library. Registration is essential and will open soon. See more about the event in this News article from PBRI.
9 – 13 February 2026 Training Retreat (Canberra and NSW)
This Training Retreat was for PhD students and postdocs in the Training Centre to build professional skills and networks. It was in-person in Canberra and regional NSW. Blog post coming soon.
1 December 2025 Seminar: Darwin and the exploding trousers: assessing an existential risk after two centuries of biological invasions in New Zealand
This talk revisited and contextualise the invasion predicted by Cellarius within a framework of biosecurity risk assessment. Seminar will be from 12:00 to 1:00 Canberra time, in person and online.
12 May 2025 ARC Training Centre in Plant Biosecurity Launch
27 March 2025 Fundamentals of PhD Supervision
20 August 2024 PhD Opportunities in Plant Biosecurity, Health and Entomology